Bowlby's monotropic theory Flashcards
What is Bowlby’s monotropic theory of attachment?
Animals and humans have an innate tendency to form attachments. This is rooted in evolutionary theory.
How are attachments adaptive?
Attachments give our species an advantage as they make us more likely to survive as the infant is kept safe, given food, kept warm etc.
Define social releasers
Innate social behaviours or characteristics which elicit caregiving and leads to attachment.
What are the two types of social releasers?
Behavioural and physical
Give two behavioural social releasers
Crying and cooing
What are 2 examples of physical social releaser?
Baby face features and body proportions
What is the critical period in humans?
Babies have to form an attachment within the first 2 years of their life otherwise their development will be damaged.
What is monotropy?
Infants form one very special emotional bond (the primary attachment relationship).
What is the internal working model?
A mental schema for relationships based on the attachment with our primary caregiver. All child’s future adult relationships will be based on this.
What is the law of continuity?
A high quality relationship with the primary caregiver in infancy will lead to higher quality childhood and adult relationships and vice versa for poorer quality relationships.
What are the two strengths of bowlby’s monotropic theory of attachment?
Support for social releasers- There is evidence supporting the idea that infants do initiate social interaction with caregivers, by displaying cute infant behaviours. Brazleton et al. (1975)- observed interactions between mothers and babies and found presence o interactional synchrony. They then asked primary attachment figures to ignore their babies’ social releasers. The babies showed initial distress, but when the ignoring continued they responded by curling up and lying motionless. Places emphasis on the significance of infant social behaviour in eliciting caregiving.
Support for the law of continuity- Hazan and Shaver found that children who had healthier relationships with their mother had healthier romantic relationships and were less likely to divorce, where as those children with an unresponsive mother had problems in their relationships later on. This evidence shows the impact of early attachment in adult relationships.
Counter- Some studies have suggested that other influences can be important in predicting later relationships. Zimmerman et al (2000) - longitudinal study of German children. Attachment type was assessed between 12 and 18 months by seeing how they respond to strangers and separation. They were then interviewed at 16 years focussing on relationships with their parents. They also recorded life events e.g. parental divorce or death during their childhood. Found that infant attachment type was not a good predictor of attachments in adolescence. More important was the impact of life events - suggests that continuity may only apply when serious life events have not had an impact on the child.
What are two limitations of bowlby’s monotropic theory of attachment?
Contradictory evidence for critical period- Bowlby believed that it should not be possible to form attachments beyond the critical period. Research which has suggested that it is less likely to be able to form attachments beyond this period, but it is not impossible (Rutter’s Romanian orphans- you will learn about this later on in the course). During the critical period children are the most receptive to the formation of attachments, BUT such developments can take place outside this window - researchers now prefer to use the term ‘sensitive period’ rather than ‘critical period’.
Socially sensitive research- Bowlby’s monotropic theory has major implications for the lifestyle choices mothers make when their children are young. The law of accumulated separation states that having substantial time apart from a primary attachment figure risks a poor quality attachment that will disadvantage the child in a range of ways later. Feminist Erica Burman (1994)= this places a terrible burden of responsibility on mothers, setting them up to take the blame for anything that goes wrong in the rest of the child’s life. It also suggests the mother should not be separated from the child and so pushes them into choosing not to go back to work when a child is born.
